The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is looking forward to developing a portal where citizens can check their property tax assessment details. Simultaneously under development is a project to assign each building in the city with a QR (Quick-Response) code, in order to enhance transparency with regard to matters related to revenue and vigilance.
So far, property tax is being charged by the GHMC on each building in the most opaque fashion, not comprehended by majority of the owners, giving scope to a lot of corruption and irregularities, which invariably lead to legal wrangles. The demand notice generated by the GHMC does not reveal the criterion based on which the tax is being charged, and taking advantage of this, field level Revenue staff often resort to corrupt practices such as under assessment or over assessment.
“We are developing a portal, where each property holder can log in and see what the building is, what is the current tax levied, or in case of commercial buildings, trade licence fee. He or she can see the measurements as per the GIS survey, as per the Google Street View, and as per other databases available,” said Additional Commissioner (Revenue) Anurag Jayanti.
